camping :)

I had the opportunity this weekend to go with a church plant to their camp retreat. We went to Petchaburi on the coast and camped on the beach (thalee). We were supposed to leave the meeting place at 7 am on Saturday. We ended up leaving there around 7:30. Then we picked up 2 other people on our way out of the city. Keep in mind that there were already 6 people in this 5 passenger van. Then we had to stop to get a little gas. Then we stopped about 20 minutes out of the city at a travel station type place to get food, go to the bathroom, and get more gas. By this time it was 9:30 and we were supposed to be in Petchaburi by 10. We had another hour and a half ride before we got to where we were going. Thai time is so relative. We arrived and ate lunch. One of the girls, Kik (pronounced geek), ordered food for me. It was khraphaw nua (basil beef w/ a fried egg). It was really good. They also ordered snack type foods. They said one of them was fried egg (it tasted more like just fried dough). Then there was something that was kind of gelled coconut milk (i rele don't know how to explain it, but it was really good). At this point we went to the pastor's parents' house which was about a mile down the road. Most of us stayed there while a few people went to the market to buy all the food we would eat the rest of the weekend. I listened and sang (when i could) while a group of girls practiced leading worship.

After the people from the market (talaat) we went out to the campsite.

We set up camp and then had a worship service. Then we split up into groups to study Acts (flashbacks of fpo). After that we ate dinner and then had a physical fitness test. This included a race where our necks were tied to a bamboo pole while we walked through the water, around a pole and back to the shore.

Then we ran about a mile and a half on the beach. Then we swam. but you don't go out into the water then start swimming...no you have to start swimming where the water starts. So this turns into crawling more than swimming (quite amusing to watch). Then we had to do 45 sit-ups. After that we all got showers (dip baths in a concrete block room w/ no where to put your dry things. This resulted in me holding my dry clothes while rinsing off all the sand. Then putting my clothes on before washing my hair. Interesting to say the least :) While waiting for the shower and in the shower i'm pretty sure that I got bitten by almost every mosquito in the Petchaburi province. After showers we all got together around a camp fire (it was only 68/70 degrees F and the thais were wearing coats, scarves, and beanies. Then we just sang and worshipped and then people gave testimonies to what Father is doing in their lives and prayer requests. Mind you, this is all in thai, so i'm understanding maybe 15 words in 5 minutes. It was about 11 pm at that point so bed time. We had 5 four-person tents. There were 29 of us. So in my tent there were 4 thai girls and me and another M*. I actually slept more on this camping trip w/ no padding than i ever have in america. Maybe just b/c I was sooo tired from waking up early and hearing so much thai all day long.
The next morning I thought about waking up to see the sun rise. I heard a girls alarm go off at 5:30. The sun wasn't quite up yet, so I went back to sleep. I woke up again around 6 and it still didn't look very bright, so I decided it was a cloudy day and I wouldn't be able to see the sun rise even if i got up. So i was able to sleep until 6:45. Then we had baptism at 7:15. After baptism we all had to get showers again b/c we all got into the ocean. (thais are very clean people). After showers we had morning worship and the other M* on the trip spoke (in English) so I enjoyed not having to strain so hard to listen. After that we ate breakfast/lunch (not really sure which). By that time it was already 10:30. After that we got w/ our groups again to review acts. I laid down for a nap, and it was glorious. After an hour long nap it was time to come together as a big group to summarize Chs 8-28 of Acts. AFter 2 hours we were through with 8-21. We were running out of time so the pastor quickly summarized the last 7 chapters instead of my group being able to present what we had learned from the chapters. After that we cleaned up camp and headed back to the pastor's parents' house for dinner. We left their house around 6 and i was thinking oh I'll have plenty of time to do my homework and study before i go to sleep... well shortly after we got on the road we stopped to get dessert. I don't know how to explain it other than it was sweet coconut milk with tapioca pearls and egg in it. It's really good. Then we made 2 more stops along the way so, needless to say I didn't arrive at my apartment until 10:00 last night. It was a loonnnggggg weekend, but so much fun (sanuk).



Baptism



Around the campfire